Peach Cobbler and Checking Accounts
by LemonStar
Summary: ..Daryl/Beth.. AU - no zombies. Sequel to "Band Aids and Coconut Cake". Even after his ex-girlfriend admitted to cheating on him, Daryl doesn't let the past rule his current relationship with Beth. He trusts her. But that doesn't mean that he has to trust the new guy Beth has hired to help her at her vet practice. What kind of guy calls himself Jesus anyway?
1. Sunday Morning

**So, someone sent me a message saying that the way I wrote the South and their "pride" made me very racist. I've never been called racist before, so I am not entirely sure how to react to that. I'm not, but if I have ever come across that way, please accept my endless apologies. That was not my intent at all. My muse for "By the Book" is gone at the moment, but I hope for it to return eventually.**

 **In the meantime, this is the sequel to "Band Aids and Coconut Cake". I have a trilogy planned so I hope you're happy to see the people of Dogwood, Georgia again, and I hope you enjoy this first chapter! Beth and Daryl are very much in the honeymoon part of their relationship.**

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 **One.**

When he was a little kid, he remembered going to church with his mom every Sunday morning. He didn't know if they went because Paulie was religious or just because she wanted to get out of the house and away from the old man for a while. Daryl had never asked. He just knew that once Will Dixon was gone from their lives, Paulie kept going to church services, but she didn't make Daryl come with her anymore. Sometimes, he would, but other times, he didn't feel like sitting on a hard wooden bench for a couple hours in a hot room and he would much rather be out in the woods, hunting or just walking.

But now that he was in a pretty serious relationship with Beth Greene, Daryl found himself going to church service once again every Sunday because he was dating a girl who had a deep faith and even though he didn't share it – if anything, he had all of his faith in her – he admitted that he just liked spending time with her and being around her and if that meant spending a couple of hours of his time in a church on Sundays to be around her, then that's what he would do.

The church was close to the farm so if the weather was nice enough, they just wound up walking with Louis, their chocolate Labrador, trotting at their side. And Beth would always slip her hand into Daryl's, interlacing her fingers with his, and Daryl would be the one to give it a squeeze. Beth smiled up at him and stepped in a little closer to him. He didn't know what it was. He still wasn't used to it. But with Beth walking beside him, holding his hand and looking so damn happy to be with him, it always made him feel as if he was walking a little bit taller. This girl made him feel like he was the most important guy in the world and he didn't get how she could do that just by holding his hand.

"So, after service, we're going to your mom and Dale's for Sunday lunch," Beth reminded him even though he couldn't possibly have forgotten with both Beth and Paulie reminding him at least once a day of the plans the two women had made.

"I know. Damn, woman," he grunted and smirked a little when Beth knocked her hand into his shoulder.

They could see the white steeple of the church over the tops of the trees. The bells were ringing, signaling that they had five minutes before the beginning of service.

Daryl wondered what he would think about for the next two hours. It's not like he didn't listen to the guy up on the altar behind the podium. Sometimes, he did. Sometimes, he listened when the guy talked about judgment and Hell and Daryl's thoughts couldn't seem to help but wander to those of Will Dixon and he knew it wasn't his place to pass judgment – he had learned that much from going to church – but he figured that if anyone was in Hell, it was the old man. And then from there, his thoughts turned to trying to imagine what things would have been like if his mom had been the one to die and his dad had been the one in his life.

And that was probably why he wasn't the biggest fan of going to church. It gave him too much time to just sit there and think about things he sure as hell didn't want to think about.

Louis knew the drill. When they reached the church, the dog trotted ahead and plopped himself beside the bottom of the steps, where he would obediently sit and wait until they came out again and walked back home. He panted his tongue, happily smiling, as Daryl and Beth both gave him ear rubs before heading up the stairs and going inside. And others on their way up the steps smiled at Louis and gave him pets as they passed him and it was the dog's idea of heaven – so much affection and attention from so many different people.

In the church, Daryl followed Beth up the aisle as she went to their usual pew – third from the back and she slid in first and Daryl sat down next to her. Others who came in smiled in their direction and Beth smiled warmly in return as they took their own seats. Daryl honestly already wasn't paying attention. It was cool outside – summer fading away and slipping into fall – but the church was stifling. Someone had turned on the damn heater instead of just opening the windows, allowing for the cool breeze from outside to come in.

He snapped out of it when he felt Beth's hand and he looked down to see that Beth had slid her hand over his, interlacing their fingers together. He looked at her – the question in his eyes, but not leaving his mouth. She didn't need him to ask though.

She gave him a small smile. "You're frowning," she whispered to him.

He leaned in closer to her, his lips to her ear. "You think they make it so hot in here so we're always thinkin' 'bout fire and brimstone?" He asked, completely serious, and he could hear the soft giggle that bubbled behind Beth's pursed lips.

"Good mornin'."

Both Daryl and Beth's eyes flew up when they saw Daryl's mom, Paulie, and her husband, Dale, standing in the aisle at their pew, smiling at them.

"Good morning," Beth smiled happily up at them.

"Mornin'," Daryl said after.

"Morning, you two," Dale smiled warmly down at the couple.

"You two are still comin' over today, right?" Paulie asked and she gave her son a pointed look as if he had somehow forgotten between her and Beth reminding him every hour of the day.

"What the hell is with you two?" Daryl frowned at both his mom and then turned his head to give his girlfriend the same frown. Beth frowned back and pinched his wrist.

Dale chuckled and gently guided Paulie down the aisle towards their own pew.

"Stop being such a baby," Beth said to him in a quiet voice. "Your mom is real excited about having us over today."

"Why? 's jus' lunch. Ain't like she's never had us over 'fore and it ain't like she can give us a big announcement like she's pregnant or somethin'."

Beth rolled her eyes at that and pinched his wrist. Daryl pinched her leg in response.

"Stop abusin' me, woman," he grumbled and Beth pursed her lips together again to keep from laughing and she leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder.

Daryl smiled a little to himself. He had never been the biggest fan of displays of affection out in the open. It had always made him a little uncomfortable and he felt like everyone was looking at him and judging him, but with Beth, he found himself not really caring if someone was looking. Let them look. The prettiest girl in all of Dogwood, Georgia – and probably the state of Georgia, too – had her head on his shoulder and looked pretty damn content and happy with having it there and Daryl wanted people to see that, he admitted. When it came to Beth, he liked bragging.

Father Gabriel stepped up onto the altar then and everyone stood up, singing the first song of the morning. Daryl just stood there. It was big enough he was going to church now every Sunday. He had never sung and he wasn't going to start now. He actually didn't even know what his singing voice sounded like, but he wouldn't be surprised if it cracked the stained glass windows in the church. Besides, if he sang, he wouldn't be able to listen to Beth singing next to him and he was thinking that listening to her sing church songs was the main reason why he came to church.

He owned his own contracting business and he had one guy who worked with him: Theodore Douglas – T-Dog – and nearly every Sunday, and every day other than that, T-Dog was after Beth to join the church choir and he promised her all of the solos, as if that was the reason Beth wouldn't join.

Daryl had asked her once why she didn't want to join and she had shrugged a shoulder before staying quiet for a moment.

"My daddy always wanted me to join the church choir and I told him that I would once I got back from college," she said quietly after a moment.

Daryl didn't ask her about it anymore after that. Beth would join T-Dog in the church choir if that was what she wanted, but he knew now that she probably didn't because it still hurt her too much to think of herself in the choir without seeing her dad out in the congregation, watching and listening to her.

Sometimes, Daryl would hear her sing particular a song in church and her voice would start to shake and he knew that she was thinking of her mom or dad or both and she would have to swallow in an effort to compose herself, but she never stopped singing the song. She always kept going.

Her voice didn't tremble this morning and she sang with the rest of the congregation and among all of the other voices, Daryl listened to only hers. Church songs weren't his favorite, but some were pretty good – especially when Beth was singing them. He wondered if when they had kids, would they be musical like Beth?

And there he was again. It wasn't the first time he had had a thought like that. Kids. More specifically, kids with Beth. When he had been younger, he had never thought of having kids. Why the hell would he want to share the Dixon blood with anyone? Why subject anyone to that? And then he dated Amy and thought things were pretty damn serious with her and not only had he thought about marriage, but he had thought about having kids with her because that was usually what people did when they got married. And Daryl had been pretty certain he wanted those things – everything – with the girl who was now his ex-girlfriend.

Thank God for that. He didn't thank God for a lot, but when it came to Amy showing him her true colors, Daryl made sure he did, because Amy being Amy, Daryl now found himself here, with Beth, and it made him realize, being with her, that he wasn't nearly as happy or in love with Amy as he had originally thought.

The song and singing stopped and everyone sat down once again and Father Gabriel began his preaching. Daryl's mind almost immediately wandered – thinking of all sorts of things. He wondered if Louis was still sitting outside at the bottom of the steps or if he had run off into the trees like he had done a couple of weeks ago, returning with a dead rabbit in his mouth and dropping it at Daryl's feet as if he had brought him a present. Daryl had taken that rabbit to his mom and Paulie had made a rabbit pot pie for Sunday dinner that evening.

Lately, he had been meaning to go hunting with Louis. It had been a couple of weeks and neither Daryl or the dog were used to going so long without doing so. Daryl was a hunter and he had trained Louis to be a hunting dog and they used to go every weekend and it was obvious to Daryl that now that they weren't, Louis was missing it. Maybe, depending on when they got back from Paulie and Dale's, if there was enough light, he'd take the dog for a short trip to the woods. And maybe this next weekend, they'd go camping. He wondered if Beth would want to come with them.

She might be too busy, though, even if she did want to go. Within the past couple of months, Beth's veterinary practice had exploded. Apparently, the vet that had worked in the next town over had retired and now, Beth was the only vet around for miles. And people were pouring over to bring their animals to her. She was always getting more calls to see animals on a lot of the surrounding farms.

Beth was a damn good vet, though, and she was more than happy to be this busy, caring for all sorts of animals that people brought to her. At the moment, they had a mallard duck toddling around their house. A couple of kids had been in the Commons, the large park in the middle of their little town, Dogwood, when they had seen the bird not able to fly or even really walk. They had been able to scoop it up and bring it to the Doc to take a look at. Beth had wrapped the leg and had invited the animal to stay with them until the broken leg had healed up and she made Louis promise that the dog wouldn't kill him. So far, surprisingly, Louis was curious about the duck, but he had left him pretty much alone.

Beth had named the duck Matt – Daryl nearly grinning when he heard – and Matt had more than made himself at home; sometimes waddling down to the little pond behind the farmhouse or just staying inside, making himself comfortable on the floor in front of the fireplace in the living room and eating the corn and oyster crackers Beth gave him. Both Daryl and Beth had a feeling that Matt would stick around even when the leg was healed. In just a short time, that damn duck had been domesticated and it was amazing to him that for a hunting dog, Louis had requested Beth's wishes and hadn't shaken the bird to death with his teeth. Of course, Daryl knew that his dog loved Beth as much as he did.

With Beth being so busy, she had searched out and had found another guy to help. A recent veterinary school graduate, his name was Paul though he joked that his friends often called him Jesus because of his long brown hair. Beth had smiled at that while teasing him that that was slightly blasphemous, but she did call him Jesus sometimes as well as Paul.

Daryl didn't know him that well even though the Greene Veterinary Practice was in the same house where Daryl lived. Daryl had his own job and business to see to and he left the house every morning and didn't come home until that evening and by then, Paul was usually almost always gone for the day. Beth seemed to like him though. She didn't talk about him a lot, but what she did say, telling Daryl stories about her day as they ate dinner together, the guy seemed like he was competent enough and Daryl really only cared that the guy was a help rather than a burden because Beth worked too hard and she needed help.

Beth's familiar laughter brought Daryl from his thoughts and Daryl turned his head to look over at her, she smiling and looking up at him.

"Where on earth have you been?" She teased him. "Service is over."

Daryl looked around and sure enough, the church was emptying out.

He looked back to Beth and gave a shrug. "Thinkin' 'bout you," he said honestly and Beth's cheeks turned a noticeable pink at that as she blushed. "What'd I miss?"

"Mary and Martha," Beth told him as they stepped from the pew and began heading up the aisle towards the doors. "You'd probably like the story. Two sisters, one does everything while the other sits and listen as Jesus tells stories."

Daryl smirked a little at that. "You callin' me and Merle sisters?"

Beth smiled and shook her head. "I'm just saying that there are certain things that you'd understand more than you would think."

"So stop thinkin' 'bout you in church?"

They stepped outside, avoiding the crowd of people as they lingered in groups, talking and gossiping with one another. Daryl took hold of Beth's hand and Louis was waiting for them, standing up and wagging his tail when he saw them coming down the steps towards him.

"I didn't say that," Beth smiled and Daryl smirked at her.

"See you two in a bit!" They heard Paulie call out to them as she and Dale made their way to the car in the gravel parking lot and Beth waved at her with a wide smile.

They began their walk home, Louis trotting happily in front of them, occasionally getting distracted by a scent he would catch, his nose going to the ground to investigate. The dog missed hunting, that was obvious to Daryl.

"You wanna go campin' this next weekend?" Daryl asked, looking to Beth.

She had been humming a song that had been sung in church that morning and she kept humming after he asked, but he knew she wasn't ignoring him. Dating her and living with her, Daryl had learned that Beth was nearly always humming.

"Friday night into Saturday or Saturday night into Sunday?" She asked. "Or the whole weekend?"

Daryl shrugged. "Hadn't thought that far ahead yet."

When he and Louis went hunting, he packed a pack with some food, water, and a blanket and made sure he had plenty of bolts for his crossbow and then he and Louis would go. There hadn't been any planning going into it. But Beth was different and though she liked her surprises, she also liked her plans.

"I'll check and see what the weather is predicted to be next weekend," Beth said. "I bet a whole weekend camping would be so much fun. We'll have to go grocery shopping and I think Shawn has a tent in the back of his closet somewhere. If not, I'll have to buy one because I know you don't use one. We can make s'mores, too! Would you mind if Rosita and Spencer came?"

It took a moment for Daryl's mind to catch up on everything she had just said. Weather had never mattered to him. Him and Louis had been out in the woods when it had been raining plenty of times. As for food, he knew he couldn't expect Beth to eat granola bars and squirrel meat all weekend like he did when he went out there. And as for s'mores, he had actually never had one.

"Sure," he said to all of it and she smiled happily up at him and that was more than enough for Daryl. He knew he'd agree to anything she wanted for that smile alone.

Beth probably knew that about him, too, but because she was Beth, she would never even _think_ about using that to her advantage. She wasn't like another blonde Daryl had dated before. Sometimes, Daryl still couldn't believe how much he loved Beth. He honestly hadn't even known that loving someone this much was even possible.

Reaching the large white farmhouse once again, Louis raced up the steps and Daryl pulled the keys from his pocket, opening the screen door and unlocking the front door. Dogwood, Georgia was a little town – everyone knowing everyone – and most of those people didn't lock their doors most times. But Beth always made sure the doors were locked. She had medicine in the exam room that people could steal and sell and make a handsome profit for themselves.

As they stepped inside, Matt was there, ruffling his feathers and quacking at them, showing off his irritation for being left alone for so long.

"Yeah, yeah," Daryl muttered and both he and Beth stepped aside as Matt waddled past them and headed outside. "Damn housebroken duck," he muttered and Beth laughed. She slipped out of her heels and headed up the stairs, barefoot. "Wonder what you'll bring home next," Daryl wondered out loud as he followed behind her and Beth's soft, light laugh was her only response.

This was his favorite part of Sunday. The right after church part.

It had once been Beth's bedroom, but it was now theirs, and he followed her in there now. With the slightest nip of fall in the air now, Beth had turned off the air conditioning and had opened the windows in the house, the white lace curtains dancing and fluttering in the breeze. He learned something new about her nearly every day and he now knew that Beth loved falling asleep when it was cool outside and she could open the windows. She loved waking up curled up like a little burrito, buried beneath the covers – her words, not his.

Every Sunday, after getting home from service, Beth laid down for a nap and today, with the windows open in the bedroom, she took a quilt she had folded over the back of the chair in the corner and still in her dress, she laid down on the bed. He also now knew that Beth liked the way her bare, smooth legs felt against bedding. Daryl took his own shoes off and leaving himself in his pants and button shirt, he loosened the tie around his neck, but also left that one, as he climbed in beside her.

Beth set the alarm on her cell phone so they would wake up in an hour with plenty of time to get themselves to Paulie and Dale for Sunday lunch and she then laid down on her side, Daryl curving his body right up behind hers. He could feel the cool breeze coming in through the windows, tickling across their skin, and Beth made sure they were both covered with the quilt. She relaxed with a contented sigh and Daryl closed his eyes, putting his nose to the hair on the back of her head and it smelled like the cherry shampoo she used each morning.

She found his hand and pulling his arm over her hip, she snuggled back in as close to the curve of his body as she could and he wrapped his arm around her middle, tucking his hand in between her hip and the mattress.

Daryl knew he probably didn't believe in God and he didn't know what would happen once he died, but, if by some miracle, he managed to get himself into heaven, he knew that this would probably be it.

…

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 **Thank you so much for reading and please take a moment to review!  
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 **PS - The Greene family is a family of faith on the show so I'm carrying Beth's belief into this story since it's such a part of her character.**


	2. Fine, Just Fine

**I can't thank you guys enough those who read and took the time to review the first chapter. I'm so excited that you want to read a Dogwood trilogy!**

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…

 **Chapter Two.**

Ever since Paulie and Dale got married a few weeks ago over Labor Day weekend, the couple loved inviting their family over for meals – as if they didn't spend enough time cooking and serving food at the diner Dale owned in town.

After getting married, Dale put the house he had lived in with his first wife, Irma, onto the market and moved into the little house Paulie lived in, not wanting his second wife to feel as if she was living in the shadow of the first; not that Paulie would ever think that. He said he also didn't want to move her away from the greenhouse in the backyard that Daryl had built for her years earlier even though Daryl told them that he had no problem with and would build her another one if she moved houses.

"Hello, hello!" Paulie greeted from the front porch as Daryl and Beth got out of the pickup truck in the driveway, Louis jumping down from the back bed.

"Hello!" Beth greeted just as happily, hurrying up to the woman and the two hugged one another tightly as if they hadn't just seen one another that morning in church.

"I hope you two are hungry," Paulie said, ushering them inside. "Dale's makin' kabobs and he's not sure how many we'll eat so he's makin' enough that could feed the entire town. And I've made peach cobbler for dessert."

"You were supposed to show me how to make that," Beth reminded her.

Paulie had a tin box in the kitchen, jammed to the hilt with index cards of recipes that she had written over the years after experimenting to perfection of cakes and pies and cookies. Paulie's cakes were famous in their town and everyone knew that if there was ever a baker in town, it was Paulie Horvath. When Beth's mother had been alive, Beth had never been interested in learning how to bake or cook, thinking she would have plenty of time to learn from her. But then Annette died and Beth hated that she had wasted even one second.

"We've got peaches comin' out of the ying-yang. You know I'll show you," Paulie said.

Beth absolutely adored Paulie – and that was probably still an understatement. Before she and Daryl began a relationship with one another, they were friends and Beth and Paulie became friends as well. And now that she and Daryl were seriously involved with one another, Beth looked to Paulie as a mother figure in her life. She didn't tell the older woman that, but Beth had a feeling that Paulie already knew that. Paulie knew all sorts of things like that.

Daryl gave his mom a kiss on the cheek and then with Louis on his heels, he went out the sliding back patio door to see if he could help Dale out at the grill. The instant he was gone, Paulie spun to Beth and grabbed her hands.

"Please tell me that son of mine has proposed to you," she said.

"Paulie," Beth felt her cheeks turn red even though she should be used to this. Paulie seemed to say those very words to her every time they saw one another. "You know that if he did, you would be the first person to know. But he's not going to."

Recently, Paulie had become near-obsessed with the idea of Daryl asking Beth to marry her and Beth wasn't too sure why. She thought that maybe Paulie still had wedding fever from her own wedding to Dale. She had tried to tell Paulie that she and Daryl had not been together that long and it would be too soon for marriage, but Paulie's response to that was frowning and asking – nearly demanding - what that had to do with anything. If two people were in love like Beth and Daryl were, it didn't matter how long they had been together.

Beth _had_ thought about what it would like if she and Daryl got married. She saw no point in denying that to herself though she wouldn't say anything like it out loud to Daryl. It didn't matter what Paulie claimed. It _was_ too soon to have any kind of marriage discussion. Technically, they had only been together for just a couple of months; since the middle of summer and it was slipping into fall now and Beth thought, if they were still together – though she couldn't see why they wouldn't be – by the spring, they could maybe talk about it then.

Deep down, she knew that even if she did want to talk about, Daryl probably wasn't. Though they were together now and things were going so well, Beth couldn't forget that at the beginning of this year, Daryl was with his ex-girlfriend and he was getting himself ready to propose to _her_. Even if it didn't seem too soon for anyone else, Beth knew that it was probably too soon for Daryl and the last thing Beth wanted to do was push him or pressure him into thinking that he _had_ to propose to her. She knew, without a doubt, that he was completely over Amy, but if he asked Beth to marry him, she wanted it to be because Daryl was more than ready to do such a thing.

"Well, what is he waitin' for?" Paulie demanded as if Beth had the answer. "He ain't gettin' any younger and I wanna be a grandma and I know Merle ain't gonna make me one and it ain't like a secret that that boy's head over heels for you."

Beth felt herself blush at that. "Oh!" She suddenly exclaimed. "I made a rice, broccoli and cheese casserole and I left it in the truck."

She turned and hurried outside, thankful for the fresh air. She adored Paulie, but sometimes, like a true Southern mama, she could be a little bullying and intimidating. She could only hope that Paulie wouldn't bring this up with Daryl.

Beth knew it was just because Paulie was happy. The woman had had nothing resembling an easy life and now, in her sixties, she had finally married a good man, who loved her and took care of her and was nothing but kind, and she wanted to share her happiness with everyone and have everyone be just as happy as she finally was – no matter what.

That afternoon, they had grilled steak, potato and mushroom kabobs and Paulie was right. Dale had made way too many and they would all have plenty of leftovers. Dale had patio furniture at his old home that he had moved over and they ate out on the back cement slab patio, enjoying the cooling breeze with a nip of autumn in the air.

It was a perfect Sunday and Beth smiled to herself as she ate, truly content in that moment, with Daryl and his family that had become hers as well.

"So, Beth," Paulie began. She gave Daryl a sideways look, but he remained unaware of it as he gnawed on one of his kabobs and she looked back to Beth. "How is the plannin' for Spencer and Rosita's weddin' comin?"

…

"Everything is shit," Rosita declared the instant Beth walked into the hair salon, Sheer Genius, where she worked. Beth wasn't alarmed though. Since the time that her two closest friends, Rosita Espinosa and Spencer Monroe, became engaged, this had become a popular statement for Rosita to make.

Wednesdays was the night Rosita worked at the salon late and she was alone when Beth entered. Without responding, Beth headed straight to the shampoo bowl. It was only after Rosita turned on the water and began washing her hair did Beth speak, her eyes closing as Rosita's fingers massaged and scratched over her scalp.

"What's shit?" She asked.

"Now, my parents have backed out, too," she said, anger still in her voice and yet, at the same time, she sounded perfectly calm. Beth didn't know anyone else who could master such two drastically different emotions at the same time like Rosita could.

Beth's eyes snapped open and she looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

Rosita shrugged and shampooed for a passing moment in silence. "They were fine with me dating him in high school. They were fine with me dating him through college. Hell, they were even fine with me living with him. But now that I'm engaged, they said that if I want to marry some _gringo_ , I could do it without their help."

Beth wasn't too sure what to say to that. She was fairly certain there was no right response for something like this.

Spencer's parents had pretty much done the same thing once he had told them of his and Rosita's engagement. Despite his family being in the public eye with their political pursuits, in private, they had never approved of their youngest son dating Rosita; even though Rosita and Spencer had been together since high school. They just thought their son could do better than a hair stylist.

His father and older brother, Aiden, had slowly come around, but his mom still showed her disapproval of it all and more or less told Spencer that he could pay for a wedding on his own.

"I'm sorry, Rosita," Beth said in a quiet voice.

Rosita didn't respond and finished washing her hair and draped a towel over it, ringing it out before gently guiding her to sit up. "It's fine," she then said. "It really is," she insisted and Beth wondered if she was giving her a doubtful look. "This just means that Spencer and me get to be creative. I'll go home and look up cheap wedding ideas and start a Pinterest board."

"Just because you and Spencer don't have a lot of money to spend doesn't mean that you guys can't have an amazing wedding," Beth said as she sat in the chair at Rosita's station. "And you know that I'm going to help you with everything."

Rosita gave her a small smile through the mirror's reflection. "Do you want to come over for dinner tonight or do you have to call Daryl to check?"

Beth rolled her eyes and Rosita's smile grew wider. "I don't need permission from my boyfriend if I want to go eat dinner with my friends."

Rosita laughed as she began combing Beth's blonde hair and snipping the ends. Near the beginning of the summer, Beth had chopped her long locks off, bringing the length to just a little bit below her shoulders. Beth had loved it – especially in the hot and humid months of summer and she still loved the length of it. It made her feel older in a way and made her feel more professional.

"How are things with Daryl, by the way?" Rosita asked despite being Beth's best friend and being the first one to know if something did happen.

Beth just smiled just at the thought of Daryl. How were things going with Daryl? Amazing. Beautiful. Perfect. She had never had a relationship like this before. She had a boyfriend in high school – Zach, who was now Dogwood's primary dentist – and there was a boyfriend in college who had loved her, but Beth had just never been able to match and return his feelings.

This relationship that she had with Daryl, she felt that this was her first truly adult relationship. She was a woman, dating a man, and they were serious in that way that adults in a relationship could be together. This relationship _could_ lead to marriage. This relationship _could_ lead to having children together. She truly believed that and there was nothing that led her to think that she and Daryl wouldn't be able to last.

She was ridiculously in love with that man and he gave her a whoosh in her stomach countless times a day. She wondered if she would always get a whoosh when around him. She knew she gave him whooshes, too, in return. He had told her – which had been such a momentous moment because Daryl was just not the sort to talk about things like that. He hadn't said anything other than that, but he didn't have to. Him telling her _whoosh_ had told her enough; told her more than enough.

After Rosita finished cutting her hair and dried it, she swept up and she and Beth left the salon, closing and locking up for the night.

"I don't feel like cooking," Rosita confessed as they headed towards Beth's car.

At the moment, Spencer and Rosita only had one car and Spencer dropped her off at the salon every morning for work before heading for the Town Hall, where he worked as an assistant to Dogwood's Mayor.

"Want to just head to the diner?" Beth asked.

"God, yes," Rosita instantly agreed. "Now that you've said it, I want grilled cheese and tomato soup."

Beth took her car keys from her purse. "I want that now, too," she laughed a little.

She drove them to the diner and parked in a spot on the street. It was a little bit past seven, a little late for dinner for most, but the diner was still a little crowded with those either enjoying a late meal or having a final cup of coffee before heading home for the night. Dogwood had a cardboard box factory – the largest employer to the town – and people worked first, second and third shifts. Those who had just gotten off their shift were inside, enjoying greasy-spoon diner food or omelets as big as their heads and pancakes as big as tires.

Rosita and Beth stepped inside and instantly, Beth's eyes fell upon Daryl and T-Dog sitting at the counter, eating a late dinner after finishing up their last job for the day. They both wore their dark navy blue tee-shirts that she had gotten made for them with Dixon Construction in white lettering on the back and even standing at the door, looking at them, Beth could tell that they were tired.

She was so proud of Daryl. He and T-Dog had renovated the town's historical and precious town gazebo in the center of the town's park, The Commons, and ever since then, the contractors had been flooded with calls – being asked to renovate all sorts of buildings in town that dated back to pre and post-Civil War not to mention the people who called who wanted them to come do work on their houses.

Each morning, Daryl – with Louis – left the house just after dawn – and didn't get home until long after her last patient of the day had left. She knew he was so tired, but he had such a talent for renovation and construction and now, everyone in their town was privy to that knowledge. She had called him an artist once and he had snorted at that as if he had never heard anything more amusing than that, but in Beth's mind, he truly was. It wasn't like anyone could do the things that he did with wood. If they could, he certainly wouldn't be as busy as he was now.

Louis, always at Daryl's side, sat on the floor between the two men on their stools, but when he saw that Beth and Rosita had entered, he came trotting over with his tail wagging. Even the dog looked tired. Daryl turned to see where his dog was going and his lips twitched a little when he saw that it was Beth, crouching down to say hello to the dog she hadn't seen since they had left the house early that morning.

Daryl leaned into the man that sat on the stool next to him and said something to him. The man looked over his shoulder to see Beth and with a nod of his head, he picked up his plate and glass and moved down two more stools so Beth and Rosita could sit down at his side.

"Thank you," Beth smiled to the man and then sat down next to Daryl. "Hey." She leaned into Daryl and kissed his cheek. "Did you two just finish up?" She asked.

"After you get asbestos rainin' down you like damn snow, you kind of don't want to work anymore," T-Dog said with a frown as he dunked his French fries in the pool of ketchup on his plate.

"What?" Beth froze, her chest immediately seizing as if her heart had decided to stop beating.

"He's exaggeratin'," Daryl said, giving T a frown before looking back to Beth, who was staring at him, waiting for him to explain to her how asbestos wasn't serious. "We were movin' the ceilin' tiles in the records room and as soon as we poked our heads up there and saw it, we stopped movin' the tiles so it wouldn't move the stuff around. Told 'em they had to call asbestos removal 'cause we don't do that."

Beth kept staring at him. She had learned that Daryl liked to underplay things that could actually be considered quite serious.

"Honest, Beth. Don't worry," Daryl said. "Your hair looks real nice, by the way."

"Of course it does," Rosita piped in.

"Hey, girls," Paulie said, coming up to them, giving Daryl and T-Dog refills on their Coke. "What can I get you two?"

Beth and Rosita ordered grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup as planned – Dale called it "The Rainy Day Special" on the menu that everyone in town had long-ago memorized because the menu hadn't changed in twenty years – and two diet Cokes. Paulie baked a different cake every day for the diner, but every slice was sold out by noon and coming into the diner that late in the evening, it was definitely gone so for dessert, the girls ordered a slice of peanut butter pie to share.

"How was your day?" Daryl asked her as he finished up his tuna salad sandwich.

Beth was still looking at him though. She knew he wouldn't consider it a big deal – even if asbestos really had been snowing down on him – but there were all sorts of commercials on television for lawyers who handled medical cases for those infected with asbestos and it most definitely was an issue – especially with old buildings like so many in Dogwood were; buildings that Daryl was working on. Beth didn't think she was being overdramatic for being worried about him; no matter how much or how little of it he was exposed to.

Daryl kept looking at her and Beth finally managed to swallow dryness and speak.

"Good. Busy. Paul and I had two dogs that were ready for a showdown in the waiting room. Terriers are the scrappiest fighters, I swear. They don't care how big another dog is. But I was able to get the Rottweiler out on the porch and do his exam out there and Paul took the terrier into the exam room. Thank God Paul was there. Even the owners were having a hard time controlling their dogs."

Daryl didn't say anything to that. He just gave his head a nod and took a sip of Coke through the straw. He glanced at her before reaching for the ketchup bottle.

"So, the guy's workin' out well?" He asked.

Paulie returned with hers and Rosita's dinners, setting the plates down in front of them before sweeping Daryl and T-Dog's empty plates away, going into the kitchen. She looked to Dale through the order window, standing at the large stove in the kitchen where he always was. She wondered if Dale and Paulie ever got on one another's nerves, working together and then going home together. She couldn't imagine it though. They had been working together for years and Dale had always run the back while Paulie ran the front.

The wedding between the two had been a surprise and yet, somehow, it hadn't been much of a surprise at all.

"He's great," she nodded to his question with a slight smile. "Very capable and he doesn't mind at all working out of the house even though I know a lot of the vets graduating now want a more modern and upscale office to work out of."

"Your practice has damn near everythin' you need," Daryl frowned a little.

He reached past Beth to hand Rosita the ketchup bottle for her fries.

"What kind of guy gives himself the nickname of Jesus anyway?" Rosita asked and Beth nearly sighed and smiled at the same time. It was a question Daryl had muttered under his breath more than once since she had brought Paul on to help with the Greene Veterinary Practice. "Sounds like he is pretty full of himself," Rosita continued. "And I'll tell you what. Don't stand next to him in a storm. I wouldn't want to risk it. A guy calls himself Jesus because he looks like Jesus is begging to be struck by lightning just to be taught a lesson."

Beth held her cup in her hand and she took a sip of Coke, smiling around the straw, looking down to her food as if embarrassed for some reason.

"He's nice," she said quietly.

She felt Daryl staring at her and she moved her eyes to him. He didn't say anything. He was just staring at her and she couldn't read his expression.

"Are you feeling alright?" Beth sat up straight, quickly. "Do you want to go home?"

After a moment, Daryl shook his head, his eyes still on her and she felt like he was trying to look _inside_ of her, but she couldn't figure out why.

"'m fine," he said and that was all he said and he did sound perfectly fine and yet, Beth got the feeling that he wasn't fine at all. It made the back of her neck prick.

She knew he would probably argue with her about it, but she needed to take him to go see a doctor so he could get checked out and she could see for herself that he really was fine.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to review!**

 **Paul/Jesus will make his first official appearance in the next chapter.**


	3. Town Hall Meeting

**I was inspired for this story again and I have missed this universe and this town so, so much. I hope you like it!**

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…

 **Chapter Three.**

Daryl's eyes opened and he heard nothing except the chirping of the birds, waking themselves up with the sun and singing in response. He laid there and blinked up at the top of the tent, waking himself up. First time he had ever been camping and had spent the night in a tent instead of just out in the open, sleeping on the hard ground with nothing, but a blanket and a fire. But he knew going camping with Beth would be a little different and spending his night in a tent was just one of the differences.

He supposed he was glad to have it even though he had grumbled the afternoon before once they had reached the spot where he decided they would set up for the night and Beth had put the tent together herself, not needing his help. She had merely smiled and rolled her eyes, not commenting in response to his own comments on how having a tent didn't count as _real_ camping.

But then, after the sun set and they ate their supper of hot dogs and then s'mores for dessert, a light sprinkling rain had started to fall and Louis had actually hopped into the tent first, eager to get out of the weather.

"Traitor. Actin' like we've never camped out in weather before," Daryl had grumbled at his dog and Beth had laughed softly as she crawled in after the chocolate lab and Daryl had followed in after both of them.

He probably wouldn't admit it out loud, but the tent hadn't been _that_ bad and he supposed he was a little glad that Beth had brought it along on their camping trip. Just because he didn't mind sleeping on the hard ground without any kind of shelter from the elements, that didn't mean that he wanted the same for Beth. And as the rain had picked up and the wind began blowing the night before, they laid in the tent with a lantern casting a warm glow around them and Beth read out loud from a book before they both climbed into their large, shared sleeping bag and went to sleep, Louis curling up on the other side of Beth so she was protected on both sides.

And now, Daryl woke up this morning with Beth curled on her side, her head on his chest and her breathing still deep and even. As if he knew the instant that Daryl's eyes were opened, Louis got to his feet and walked around to come up to Daryl's other side, nudging him in the cheek with his snout and giving the faintest of cries.

Daryl lifted his hand and gave the dog a quick rub behind the ear and then as gently as he could, not wanting to wake her, Daryl moved Beth's head off of him so he could sit up. Beth stirred, but then she settled again, curling up into the sleeping bag, her head back on her pillow, and she remained asleep.

He grabbed his crossbow and crawled to the tent's entrance, unzipping the flap and pulling it open. Louis rushed past him before Daryl could crawl out and the dog went to the first tree he saw, grateful to be relieving himself. Daryl stood outside, zipping the flap back up behind him and then took a deep breath of the fresh air, looking at the water droplets clinging to everything, sparkling with the rising sun.

Daryl found his own tree to pee at and then he gave a little whistle to Louis, the dog bounding over to him excitedly.

"You ready to get some breakfast?" Daryl asked him and the dog's tail wagged with excitement and Daryl gave him a little smile and an ear rub before he swung his crossbow into his hands and they went off into the trees, looking for sets of prints.

He loved living on the Greene farm with Beth. He loved that it was in the middle of nowhere and the Greene property stretched out around them on all sides, seeming to go as far as the sky. Not that Dogwood was some huge metro area, but at night, being away from the town, it was just him and Beth in their own little world; sometimes feeling as if they were only ones left alive in the whole damn world.

He loved it because he had always loved being on his own; had always preferred the company of himself to just about anyone. And now there was Beth and if he could spend time with one other person in this world, it would be with her. So being on a farm in the middle of nowhere Georgia with her and just her was pretty damn good, in his opinion.

But even the isolation of the farm wasn't better than the woods. There was something he felt when he was in the woods. He didn't even have to be hunting or tracking something. He and Louis could just be going for a long walk with no destination at the end or any task to see to. Being out in the woods, losing himself deeper within the trees, he had never felt as home anywhere as he did in the woods.

He had tried to explain it to Amy once when she had asked him why he was always going off into the woods if he had the time to spare, but she had just looked at him like he was crazy.

"Daryl, the only people who feel at home in the woods are the weirdos and the Unabomber," she had snipped.

After that, he had tried to go into the woods less; spending the time with her at home instead. His entire relationship with Amy, he had spent it, not wanting to cause waves; not wanting to do anything that would make her frown at him.

He never told Amy – never told anyone – that when he was little and Will Dixon came home in a drunken rage – a rage that usually ended with at least one broken bone and a definite knock on the door from the police – Paulie had often pushed Daryl towards the back door before Will could spot him and she would hurriedly whisper to him to go hide in the woods behind their house. He had always shaken his head and wanted to stay with her – wanting to do his best to protect her from Will – but Paulie always pushed him out with a shake of her head, telling him to run and hide and don't come out again until she or a police officer got him.

The woods made him feel safe; even after all of these years.

When he and Louis returned to their camp, it was about an hour later and the sun was completely risen, the birds still singing up a storm in the tree branches, and Beth was awake now, too, sitting on the little cooler she had brought with them since everything was still wet, and she was re-braiding the pigtails she had parted her hair into that weekend.

She burst into a smile when Daryl and Louis stepped into their little clearing and Louis came bounding to her for some morning love and affection. She laughed as he licked her face and she scratched his floppy ears.

"You're back," Beth smiled at Daryl.

"Was hopin' to get back 'fore you got up," Daryl said. "You been up long?"

"I don't think so. I took some time picking the perfect tree for my bathroom and then I've just been sitting here, enjoying the quiet," she said, her smile constant to him.

Daryl smiled a little, too, and then went to her, bending over and giving her a kiss. When he pulled back, she was smiling up at him as if that was the best thing he had ever done for her and he felt the back of his neck grow a little warm. He was still getting used to someone like Beth looking at him like she did; like he was the question and answer to everything in her world.

It confused him and if he was honest, it even scared him a little because he didn't know what to do with her always looking and smiling at him like that. He knew he'd do anything in the world to always have her look and smile at him like that, but what if he couldn't? What if he did something and ruined all of this? What if he let her down somehow and disappointed her and things changed between them?

He didn't want to compare Beth to Amy. It was the last thing he wanted to do, but sometimes – a lot of the time, if he was being honest – he couldn't seem to help it because Amy and Beth were nothing alike and it didn't make sense to him why someone like Beth – who was infinitely times better than Amy – would ever be interested in him, let alone have anything to do with him.

And he knew that he probably wasn't the only one to think it though most in Dogwood were just too damn nice to ever say it out loud.

Beth was a doctor. She had gone to veterinary school and now ran her own successful practice and for some reason, she decided that she wanted to be with some guy who always had dirt on his hands. He never went to college. Hell, he barely graduated from high school and it was a miracle he was able to own his own business and have profits be in the black every month. He and Beth just weren't on the same level and they never would be.

So for her to look at him like he was everything she could ever want, he didn't get it and he knew he wasn't smart enough to _ever_ get it.

Daryl held up the dead rabbit he and Louis had tracked down. "I was thinkin' that for breakfast, we'd have those eggs you packed and rabbit."

"A feast," Beth smiled with approval and then stood up, stretching her arms over her head, grunting a little as her muscles stretched. "I'm glad we did this," she then said once Daryl had brought the fire back to life and she sat, watching him as he gutted and cleaned the rabbit for roasting.

"Yeah?" Daryl didn't lift his head though he could clean an animal blindfolded.

Beth nodded, hugging her arms around her chest. "I see why you love doing this. There's just something… magical about being out here, in nature. Going back to how it used to be."

Daryl smirked a little at that. "Don't know 'bout magical, but I'm glad we're doin' this, too. And we can do it whenever you want to get away for a couple days."

He still didn't lift his head, but he knew Beth was smiling at that.

"Work has been so crazy lately," Beth said with a sigh. _That_ made Daryl look at her, his hands pausing in their work. "And I love being busy. Being busy is nothing, but good, but by the end of the day, I just want to collapse and my daddy, when he ran the practice, always made sure that he was never too busy where he couldn't enjoy the fruits of his labor, as he always said."

Daryl moved his legs, sitting down flat on the ground. "Paul not helpin' out?"

"No, he is," Beth was quick to shake her head. "It's me. I just… it was my daddy's practice and now it's mine and I guess I hate the idea that I need help running it."

"So explain it to Paul and maybe he can open up his own practice or somethin'. Take some of the weight off you."

Beth was quiet for a moment, thinking that through, and Daryl went back to finishing up his work on the rabbit. He then turned towards the fire and stabbed a stick through the carcass so it could hang above the fire on a makeshift spit.

That was another difference between Amy and Beth. When he talked to Amy, it was in one ear and out the other and Daryl always got the feeling – near the end of their relationship – that he was just wasting his breath. But with Beth, he talked and she listened and always seemed to think about what he said as if his opinion was one that she should seriously consider as Gospel.

After another moment, Beth shook her head. "Starting up your own practice takes a lot of money. I was lucky to inherit mine. Most vets find an already existing practice and lay there roots down there. And Paul really has been great. I can't ask him to leave. I'd be even more lost and stressed without him than I am right now."

Daryl felt a prickling on the back of his neck at her words, but he did his best to swat it away and ignore it. It wasn't like she was declaring her love for the guy or saying that she was sleeping with him behind Daryl's back. All she was saying was she had a lot of patients now coming into the office and she needed Paul to help her out.

She didn't _need_ Paul. She needed his help and there was a difference.

Daryl yelled at himself for not remembering that. Christ, how many things did he have to see different between the two for him to get it through his thick skull that Beth, thank God, was _nothing_ like Amy?

Beth wouldn't cheat on him. She wouldn't take his heart and stomp all over it. That just wasn't who Beth was. When she told him that she loved him, he never doubted it and he was an asshole for thinking that that was even a possibility.

"Come 'ere," he said and Beth broke into a smile, sliding down from the cooler and coming to him without hesitation.

He spread his legs out so she wasn't sitting on the cold, still damp ground, and Beth settled herself across his thighs and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders as his own slipped around her waist, holding her close to his chest.

"Thank you for bringing me here this weekend," she murmured as she hugged him.

Daryl tightened his arms around here. "Ain't no one else I'd rather have out here with me."

Beth's face was turned towards his neck and at his words, she pressed it more against his skin and he could feel her smiling.

…

Once a month, on a Wednesday, Dogwood had a Town Hall Meeting in the auditorium of the school. Not everyone in town went, but enough of them, too. As Sheriff, Rick was always there as was those on the school board and town committee and most business owners chose to attend as well. Daryl had never been to one, but then he started dating Beth and she went every month – as the veterinarian in town – and she somehow convinced him to come with her since, in her words, he was owner of Dogwood's favorite contracting business.

He didn't know about that, but he found himself going anyway and he wondered if he asked for them, Beth would give him his balls back.

Holding his hand, Beth walked down the aisle and found Rosita sitting in the last row of the main section where everyone else was sitting. Rosita didn't like coming to these meetings, but like Daryl, her significant other was here, so she came, too. Spencer sat up on the stage with the mayor, the man waiting to get the meeting started at seven o'clock sharp.

"Hey," Rosita smiled at them both as Beth plopped down in the seat next to her and Daryl sat down on the other side of Beth. "Spencer said something big is going to happen tonight. He wouldn't tell me what though."

"They burnin' the town down and startin' over?" Daryl guessed and though she was smiling, Beth nudged him in the side with her elbow anyone and he smirked at her.

"Good evening, everyone!" The Mayor said as he hit his gavel on the podium he stood behind. "I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight. And as always, we're going to start this meeting off with Sheriff Grimes, giving us the Dogwood monthly crime report. Sheriff?"

Rick smiled at the Mayor as he came to the podium with a few sheets of paper.

"Dogwood crime report?" Daryl muttered as he slouched a little lower in his seat. "Yeah, I've always thought this town was a regular Detroit."

"Daryl," Beth did her best to frown at him though it was obvious she was trying not to laugh, but Rosita had no problem grinning at that.

Rick spent a few minutes, talking about a fight a few nights ago outside of Joe's that had been over whether the night sky was black or a very dark blue. The two men had been apprehended and held overnight in the jail for public intoxication and public brawling, but had been released the next morning and no further fights had happened since. The rumor going around town that the fight had been over a woman and that knives were involved was completely false.

"Was Merle in jail a few nights ago?" Beth leaned into him, whispering, and Daryl actually felt himself smiling at that.

"And also, with high school football season starting up again, I am going to be assigning extra patrols on nights during home games to assure everyone's safety. A repeat of last year's incident from the Fisher Fighting Tuna team will not happen."

Daryl looked to Beth with a questioning look and she smiled a little.

"Do you even live here? I was in Atlanta last year," Beth reminded him.

Rosita leaned forward so she could look at both of them. "Fans from Fisher, during the game, shoved tuna in all of the Dogwood cars' exhaust pipes during the game. It was disgusting and a mess and seriously, Daryl, how did you not hear about that?"

Daryl shrugged. "I don't follow the high school football team," he said as his defense.

"Shhhh!" Rosita hushed him. "Don't say that so loud."

The rest of the meeting seemed to crawl by. The woman who was in charge of running the Commons and organizing all of the activities held in the park came to talk near the end of the hour-long meeting that had felt like an eternity to Daryl.

"As you know, during the month of October, we show a movie every Friday night and also a movie after trick or treat is finished for the night. If you have a suggestion of an appropriate fun October movie appropriate for _all_ ages, please drop it off in the suggestion box in my office in the Commons building. We will _not_ have a repeat of last year," she said. "Thank you."

Daryl actually knew what incident she was talking about and he couldn't help, but smirk a little and Beth looked to him, wondering what that was all about because she wasn't here for Halloween last year either.

"The park was supposed to be showin' _Paranorman_ or somethin' like that and Merle snuck in _Hellraiser_ instead," Daryl whispered to her. "His buddy was runnin' the projector that night and let 'im do it. There were a lot of cryin' kids that night."

"That's terrible!" Beth whispered back, but he swore that she was trying not to smile and Daryl just kept smirking because while it might have been terrible, it was also pretty damn funny – especially when a grown-ass man like Merle got slapped up the back of his head by their mama.

"I just have one more thing to add before we close the meeting off for the night," the Mayor said, taking his place behind the podium once again. "As you know, I am up for re-election this January and once again, I am running unopposed. I just want to thank everyone from the depths of my heart for supporting me as your Mayor and wanting me to continue running our beautiful town-"

"Excuse me, sir," Spencer spoke for the first time during the meeting, standing up and approaching the man at the podium.

"No, no, no, no," Rosita began to say, sitting up straight in her seat, staring at her fiancé on the stage and shaking her head.

"I actually have my own announcement to make," Spencer said and the Mayor, with a frown, stepped aside so Spencer could speak into the microphone. "Over the next few days, I am going to be collecting signatures so I can get enough to begin my campaign and place myself on the ballot for January as I would very much like to be your next Mayor of Dogwood."

For a passing moment, not a single sound could be heard in the auditorium. No one moved or even breathed and a pin dropped somewhere and Daryl swore he heard it.

And then, an explosion of whispers and talking as everyone began talking to one another. This was going to spread like wildfire through the town, no doubt about it.

Beth turned to look at Rosita, but without a word, Rosita stood up and stormed out of their row, up the aisle and out the door. Beth began to get up to follow her, but then decided against it at the last moment, remaining in her seat next to Daryl and she looked at him.

Daryl didn't exactly blame Rosita for storming out. Beth had told him that neither Spencer nor Rosita's parents were helping pay for the wedding and they would have to stretch their pennies and Daryl didn't know the first thing about politics, but he knew that running a campaign for Mayor wouldn't be something cheap to do.

"Le's jus' stay out of it," he heard himself suggest because while he knew that Rosita and Spencer were Beth's best friends – and they were his friends, too – he also knew that this was none of their business. He would vote for Spencer in January and he'd go to their wedding in the spring – if there was still a wedding – and that's what he would do.

Beth nodded. "I don't know if they're going to let us stay out of it though," she said.

This was something else he wasn't used to and it hadn't happened until he started dating Beth. He had his friends, but they all knew that he kept to himself for the most part and minded his own business and the last thing he wanted was to be dragged into any dramatics. But now, he had Beth and her friends were his friends and somewhere, deep down, he felt the need to help them with their problems. And he didn't know if he liked that or not.

…

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 **Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to review!**


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